'I can't believe after all your talk of finding a better roommate than me in the form of a hamster you didn't even name her Solitude.' Alya greeted Marinette as she stepped into Alya's bedroom i.e. the war zone. Boxes were haphazardly placed throughout the room, a corner stacked with flat ones to be built. Alya's belongings were scattered across the floor, a mountain of clothes piled onto her bed. Alya's red hair was tamed into a bun, her black wire glasses on askew as she sank onto what little remained of the space on the floor.

'Is this how you're going to treat me while I spend my last day of pre-internship freedom dealing with your stuff?'

Alya just laughed in response. 'You know you love me.' She grinned.

Marinette muttered under her breath, 'I also loved the half of the rent you paid. I hope your referral pulls through.'

'You remember Juleka from school, right? It's her older brother.' Alya assured her, sitting up. 'He's great.' Alya grinned at her a little too innocently and Marinette buried her face in her hands.

'No, Alya! I refuse to be set up again! Don't you suggest things like that!'

Alya dismissed Marinette's protestations with a wave of her hand.

'Anyway,' Marinette continued. 'I actually met someone kind of interesting last week at the pet store. Without your help I might add.'

'And why is this the first time I'm hearing about it? Is this about a boy?!' Alya exclaimed. 'Girl, details - the devil is in the details.'

Marinette's cheeks turned a dusty red. 'Because nothing actually happened.'

'Wait - you met him at the pet store?'

'Yeah.'

Alya whipped out her phone to open instagram. 'Is this him?' she swiped over to a photograph of a partially obscured Marinette by Tikki with Adrien and Plagg.

Marinette nodded in response.

'I can't believe I didn't realise that was you!' Alya burst out into laughter. This was delightful news. She knew Adrien. He'd been best friends with Nino for ages but he didn't get out much cos of his overbearing father. And his job - which was working for his overbearing father. Nino had met him through uni. Look at him posing with Plagg. Alya had actually liked those photos on his instagram. What were the chances? Given how poorly Marinette had reacted to the potential setting up with her prospective new roommate Luka, Alya decided to play it cool and be subtle. Unfortunately for Alya, her idea of subtlety was a bright orange power suit. 'So,' she drawled out, 'Are you going to see Adrien again?'

'Well, no? I mean that would be cool but probably not? You know I don't know how to flirt and what, I can't just keep going to the pet store hoping to bump into him again -'

Alya cut off her mid-rant, 'But wouldn't it be a real coincidence if you bumped into him again right now?'

'What?' Marinette blinked.

'Yeah!' enthused Alya. 'You know, you seeing him again because maybe he's coming in to help with the move because maybe I recognise this guy, maybe this guy is a good friend of Nino's? Maybe I've been wanting you two to meet for a while?'

Their intercom rang and Nino was heard over loudspeaker. 'Hey Alya, Marinette! I'm here and I've brought a friend to help!'

'No,' whispered Marinette, eyes going wide, realising that Alya perhaps had not been joking.

'Oh yes,' said Alya, looking entirely too pleased with herself. She went over to the intercom and pressed the unlock key. 'Come on up!' she announced.

'ALYA, I CAN'T - YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME, I'M NOT PREPARED, I HAVEN'T BRUSHED MY TEETH YET I'M NOT WEARING MY LUCKY SOCKS ALYAAAA!' Marinette's yell trailed off as she grabbed a new change of clothes from her bedroom ran into the bathroom.

A few minutes later, Marinette returned, to see Adrien - who looked cuter than she remembered in blue jeans and a white t-shirt button up shirt rolled to his elbows, a deceptively simple outfit probably actually designed to encourage girls like her to ogle his forearms - looking at their plaque wall. It had their university degrees, a copy of Alya's first published piece of writing and embarrassingly, Marinette's certificate from high school when she won her the hat competition run by Gabriel. It was so long ago.

When she approached him with a 'hi' he jumped a little.

His hand went to the back of his head, touching his blonde locks. Marinette wanted to touch them too. 'Hi,' he replied. 'We meet again, Marinette.'

Self-consciously, she tucked a strand of her hair behind her ears. 'Hi Hamsterdam.'

He laughed at the nickname.

'Alya said you were here to help her move?'

'Yeah!' he confirmed.

'I can't believe you know Nino. How is the world this small?'

Adrien turned to look at her wall again, seemingly preoccupied with her derby hat certificate. 'Yeah,' he echoed again. 'Cool hat,' he pointed at the photograph next to the certificate, dimples in his cheeks showing as he grinned at her.

Marinette just laughed awkwardly in response, embarrassed by how proud she was of winning that competition so long ago.

He continued, 'I could look at it owl night long.'

'Oh, you can pun on more topics than hamsters?'

'My humour is punstoppable.'

Marinette let out a response that was a mixture of a laugh and a groan and Adrien laughed merrily at her reaction, possibly also at his own joke. She thought to herself that even if his humour was ridiculous, at least his laugh was kind of lovely.

'Oi! Lovebirds!' Alya called out into the living room from her bedroom. Marinette scowled at Alya's nickname, not noticing the tips of Adrien's ears going as pink as his cheeks. 'You gonna help pack or flirt all day?'

'Don't listen to Alya, Adrien. She just likes to bully me.' She led the way back towards Alya's bedroom where Nino was wrestling with the hidden end of a tape roll among half formed boxes. Judged by the cussing coming from his mouth, he wasn't winning the wrestle.

Marinette held her hand out and Nino dropped the tape roll into her awaiting palm. Using her fingernail she found the end of the tape. Pulling the tape out, she folded the edge over slightly and handed it back to Nino so he wouldn't lose the end again. Alya had gone back to sorting clothes so Marinette sidled up to Adrien to help him with unloading Alya's bookcase. They worked in tandem, grabbing part of a shelf each at a time to keep the colour coordinated order that Alya had going on and placed them into awaiting boxes they got from Nino's corner of the room. Adrien then took the initiative and lifted the completed boxes of books and moved them into the living room so there would be more space. When she had unpacked the last of the books, Marinette wondered whether she could lift a box of books herself. She figured she had a decent shot. She was used to carrying bags of flour around and unloading baking delivery supplies after all from her parents. Bending her knees like she was taught to protect her lower back, she slipped her hands underneath the bottom of the box and lifted.

Oh boy. It was heavy.

The strain in her arms meant she immediately regretted her decision. But it wasn't something she couldn't carry. It just wasn't very… comfortable. She took halting steps, keeping her knees bent as she crab-walked to get through the door to the living room where Adrien had put the rest of the book boxes. Heaving, she put the box down to get a better grip so she could lift it on top of the other boxes and continue the stack. As she was lifting the box up, she felt the box being lifted out of her hands. Not anticipating the sudden lack of weight, Marinette felt herself lose balance and with a shriek she fell sideways, elbow landing first into something not quite as hard as she was anticipating. It was Adrien! She had landed on Adrien!

'Are you alright, Marinette?' he asked her softly, and something in the way that he asked made her realise how intimately they were entwined on the floor. Her elbows were on either side of his torso, her legs tangled up with his and she realised that he must have literally cushioned her fall. She felt her face heat up as a treacherous part of her continued to dwell on their close physical proximity. Was she alright? She sure wasn't going to be for very much longer if he continued to look at her like that.

She was about to reply out loud like a normal person when Nino and Alya burst onto the scene.

'What happened? Where are you guys? Are you ok?' Alya's panicked voice rang through the room.

'Calm down, babe. They're fine,' announced Nino who had noticed the tangle of legs on the floor behind the stacked boxes.

Slowly Marinette picked herself up from Adrien, her face still warm. Adrien stood up.

'They're just getting acquainted,' continued Nino with a wink that did not help with Marinette's blush at all. Her mama hardly blushed why did she have to inherit her papa's emotional thermometer?

'Are you alright, Marinette?' repeated Adrien, concern evident in his expression. 'I'm sorry, I think I knocked you off balance.' He offered a hand towards her and still sort of dazed, she gave him her hand and he pulled her up to an upright position.

'I'm fine!' she insisted. 'Are you okay, Adrien? I think I landed on you.' She grimaced.

He nodded, 'My abs can handle it.'

She laughed, 'Abs of steel, huh?'

Nino chimed in, 'More like Man of Steel. Superhero and supermo -'

Adrien cut off Nino with a quick elbow jab to Nino's own abs. With a sour expression, Nino rubbed at the sore spot.

'Unfair dude. You know I don't work out like you do.'

Alya just laughed. 'Well then, now that we have ascertained that Adrien has survived his first incident with Marinette's legendary klutziness,' she ignored Marinette's indignant - hey! - 'I think we're ready to start loading the rental van!'

Two hours later and they were done. Alya's previous bedroom was empty and thoroughly cleaned out. The trail of packing carnage through the living room had also been tidied up. Marinette came from the kitchen with a glass of water for everyone balanced very precariously between her hands and her elbows and the rest of the crew were splayed out across the opened up sofa bed in exhaustion.

'Thanks for coming by and helping Adrien,' said Alya. She muttered thanks as she extricated a glass of water from Marinette.

'Happy to help,' said Adrien at the same time that Nino made a noise of protest and asked with a mock wounded expression, 'No thanks for your boyfriend?'

Adrien stood up to help Marinette who shook her head and handed him a glass of water from her unconstrained arm. She then swapped the glass perched in her elbow for her free hand and handed Nino a glass who thanked her with a salute.

'Well, I am moving in with you, you dork. So really, helping me move out is helping yourself.' Alya grinned at her own logic and Nino just rolled his eyes, asking out loud why he even bothered loving her.

Marinette giggled as she made her way to sit on top of the coffee table to face them, her own drink in her lap. After what happened earlier, she probably couldn't be trusted to sit next to Adrien and not wind up on top of him. Probably.

'Nino, let's go and take the truck to our place! I want to beat the rush-hour evening traffic.'

'Okay,' readily agreed Nino. Adrien stood up to follow, presumably to assist but Alya motioned for him to sit back down. 'We'll be alright unloading. And we'll unbox another day. Besides, the van only has two seats currently in use at the moment,' she said.

Uncertainly, Adrien sat back down.

'Don't go yet bro, hang out with Marinette. I'll be back in a bit,' called out Nino.

The couple then grabbed the car keys and left the apartment. Marinette decided with the sofa bed thus vacated would probably be safe to sit on with Adrien without triggering her emotional thermometer. She stood up to sit beside him in her favourite corner, legs spread out straight in front of her.

'Thanks again for helping us out today, Adrien.' Marinette said to begin conversation. 'We really appreciate it!'

He just shook his head. 'You're welcome. It's good to get out of the house actually and to meet new people. Or to re-meet old people,' he amended with a laugh, referring to their actual meeting at the pet store the other day.

'Oh! Would you like to see how Tikki is doing?'

'Yes!' agreed Adrien, excitedly.

When Nino and Alya came back an hour later, it almost looked like Adrien had cat ears. But no, it was just Tikki, sitting on his head, cute little face peeking out between the loose waves of his hair.

Nino and Alya took one look at Adrien, hair mussed and obviously enjoying himself and Marinette, sidled up to him, trying to coo her hamster and encourage her to jump back into Marinette's hands and grinned knowingly at each other.

Alya was about to interrupt them when Nino held her back, shaking his head slightly and speaking softly.

'Let them be, Alya! They gotta develop at their own pace.'

'But-' she began.

Nino continued, cutting her off with a look. 'You know how Marinette gets about setups ever since the Halloween party. We gotta leave it be, babe. We've provided the tinder, it's up to them to spark.'

'We did do a pretty good job being tinder, hey.'

'Yes,' agreed Nino. 'And now they've matched. And it is time for them to move on outside of the app.' Nino continued his analogy. 'Outside of further meddling,' he enunciated slowly, 'from us.'

Alya sighed. She liked being tinder. She also liked being right. But motivating her the most was actually just that she was worried for Marinette - that was all. And now she was leaving her all alone so she could move in with Nino. I mean, Tikki was great and all, but Marinette also needed people. She watched Marinette grab Tikki from the top of Adrien's head and laugh at his pout. Her friend looked so happy, she didn't even seem to have noticed that her and Nino had arrived back yet.

Adrien then made eye contact with Alya and Nino and waved. Following his gaze, Marinette turned around, a light dusting of pink on her cheeks as she tried too hard not to look like she was enjoying herself. But Alya knew her girl, knew the tells of her body language betraying her. She was sitting so close to Adrien, one nudge would send her tumbling into his lap. Why was Marinette so afraid of love? Why was she so afraid of making a human connection? And, the question foremost on Alya's mind: what more could she do to help?